Murray: Four department heads out, others staying

Four top officials in Mike McGinn’s administration at City Hall are out, but Seattle Mayor-elect Ed Murray said Friday that a bevy of senior managers will stay at the job come January.

The casualties who will “not be returning” are a quartet most closely identified with McGinn’s policies. They include Budget Director Beth Goldberg, Transportation Department Director Peter Hahn, Intergovernmental Affairs Director Marco Lowe, and Personnel Director David Stewart.

Rick Hooper, director of the city’s Office of Housing, has announced his retirement, while Catherine Lester will stay on as acting director of the Department of Human Services while a permanent replacement is chosen.

McGinn issued a strongly worded statement, singing the praises of Goldberg and others who won’t be coming back. “Beth has been an incredible resource in city government and I cannot thank her enough for her service,” said the outgoing mayor.

Goldberg served as budget director through depths of the Great Recession, and now the city’s incipient recovery. She had rocky relations with the Seattle City Council, but its members did some tweaking while largely approving her budgets. “I am grateful for her service in my administration and strongly believe she is leaving city government in better shape than when she arrived,” McGinn said.

Murray was a little more restrained, using politician-speak on the subject of those he is replacing.

Mayor-elect Ed Murray: Changes, but also continuity.

“I wish them all the best in their next endeavors,” he said, adding: “We enter public service with a belief that government can and should be partners with the people we serve, and responsive to the community.”

The list of those staying on is surprisingly long.

It is topped by Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean, Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco and Department of Neighborhoods Director Bernie Matsuno. Ex-Seattle mayoral candidate Peter Steinbrueck has been rumored as headed for the neighborhoods post.

The others staying on include:

– Fred Podesta, director of finance and administrative services;

– Ray Hoffman, director of Seattle Public Utilities;

– Erin Devoto, director of the Department of Information Technology;

– Steve Johnson, director of the Department of Economic Development;

– Diane Sugimura, director of the Department of Planning and Development;

– Randy Engstrom, Director of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

– Robert Nellams, director of the Seattle Center.

Outgoing Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. (Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com)

The first steps in Murray’s transition echo the transition of Governor-elect Jay Inslee a year ago. Inslee spoke loudly about bringing new blood into the Olympia bureaucracy. A majority of the time, however, he picked seasoned administrators from within that bureaucracy to keep the ship of state on course.

During the fall campaign, Murray criticized McGinn for his allegedly confrontational style but delivered limited criticisms on policy. Most were directed at the Seattle Department of Transportation.

The Friday announcements put focus on three key personnel decisions.

The first is selection of a new Seattle police chief, one decision that Murray absolutely has to get right. He must find a chief who is personally compatible, and capable of overseeing an SPD bureaucracy recently blasted by the federal monitor overseeing the Justice Department-ordered reform of the department.

The new transportation director will take hold with less than two years until Seattle voters are asked to renew — and possibly expand — the city’s big “Bridging the Gap” transportation levy. In his resignation statement, SDOT’s Hahn argued that repairs on streets and other projects are on or ahead of schedule. Many citizens remember the 2006 “Fix this Street” pro-levy signs — on streets not yet fixed.

The city is on the cusp of launching a new streetcar project that will link the South Lake Union Streetcar (informally known as the “SLUT” — South Lake Union Trolley) with the First Hill Trolley. The probable result: More massively ripped-up streets in the city’s central core.

Murray was critical of the Department of Human Services during the fall campaign and pledged to bring stability to a department that has experienced constant turmoil and turnover at the top.

Mayor McGinn was elected, in part, due to the massive mishandling of a 2008 Christmas season snowstorm by his predecessor, Greg Nickels. As city streets were paralyzed, Nickels gave himself a “B-minus” grade for handling the storm, while SDOT Director Grace Crunican decamped for a brief visit to Portland.

The Emerald City has not had that much snow in that past four years, but McGinn praised Hahn for a very different response than his predecessor. “When it started snowing, Peter set up a cot in his office so he could work around the clock to oversee our plowing, salting and de-icing efforts,” said McGinn.